Joscelyn Gardner artwork presented by Open Studio

Joscelyn Gardner

Drawing on a family history in Barbados that dates from the 17th century, I use a postcolonial feminist methodology to probe colonial material culture found in Caribbean archives in order to explore my (white) Creole identity. Specifically, I aim to articulate the intertwined historical relationship shared by black and white women in the Caribbean by recognizing that under patriarchy and colonialism the lives of all Caribbean women have been shaped by “mastership”. My project also aims to address the repression and dissociation that operate in relation to the subject of slavery and white culpability.

Working primarily with printmaking (stone lithography) and multimedia installation (video and sound), my work ruptures patriarchal or colonial versions of history by re-inserting the voices/ images/ traces of the women omitted from this history. I attempt to “speak the unspeakable” by retrieving atrocities that lie buried in our collective memory in order to reconcile the past with the present and move toward a metaphorical healing of historical wounds. By focusing on women’s lives, I identify geographical/ historical/ cultural/ racial/ class differences that have united/ separated women in the wider postcolonial world.